Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A new journal is starting with this page, and we – the editors – hope that this launch will be a successful one! Before we start with the normal course of the editorial business, let us explain why we made the decision to start a new journal. Most decisions in our everyday lives are part of dynamic decision making processes. They usually are not isolated acts but take place in a context, with a history of events leading up to the decision and a future unfolding after the decision has been taken shaping our options for later decisions. Additionally our …

This study explores the development of laypeople’s preferences for newly emerg- ing climate engineering technology (CE). It examines whether laypeople perceive CE to be an acceptable back-up strategy (plan B) if current efforts to mitigate CO2 emissions were to fail. This idea is a common justification for CE research in the scientific debate andmay significantly influence future public debates. Ninety-eight German participants chose their preferred climate policy strategy in a quasi-realistic scenario. Participants could chose between mitigation and three CE techniques as alternative options.We employed a think-aloud interview technique, which allowed us to trace participants’ informational needs and thought processes. …

Causal mapping is often recognized as a technique to support strategic decisions and actions in complex problem situations. Such drawing of causal structures is supposed to particularly foster the understanding of the interaction of the various system elements and to further encourage holistic thinking. It builds on the idea that humans make use of mental maps to represent their environment and to make predictions about it. However, a profound theoretical underpinning and empirical research of the effects of causal mapping on problem solving is missing. This study compares a causal mapping approach with more common problem solving techniques utilizing the …